Libya no-fly zone: Just a matter of hours

Imposing a U.N.-authorized no-fly zone over Libyan air space will be just a matter of "perhaps hours, perhaps a day or two," said CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

"The resolution calls for an immediate cease-fire," Martin said on CBS' "The Early Show" Friday. "There are reports today that [Qaddafi] is continuing to shell one of the few remaining rebel-held towns, so he is in violation of the cease-fire."

On Thursday the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Libya and authorized use of a no-fly zone. In response, Libya closed its air space to all traffic - presumably, said CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips, to keep an eye on non-Libyan aircraft.

On Friday British Prime Minister David Cameron said "in the coming hours" the U.K. will send Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets to help enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. Cameron also said that representatives of Britain, France and Arab nations will meet in Paris tomorrow to discuss the no-fly zone.

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The United States is not going it alone, said Martin, but its contributions to an effective no-fly zone will be indispensable.

"Certainly there are going to be other countries involved. Britain's going to be involved. France is going to be involved. Some Arab countries will be involved. But if you just look at the technology available, the U.S. is going to play a major role," he said.

Martin said that a no-fly zone would begin with air strikes against Qaddafi's air defense network - likely by American cruise missiles - so that planes patrolling Libya cannot be shot down by surface-to-air missiles.

"This may sound like just a lazy patrol over Libyan territory, but it begins violently," said Martin.

Martin said the United Nations Security Council has done its part - and now it is up to countries with air power in the region, namely France, Great Britain and the United States.

But it would not mean the use of American ground troops, he added.

"U.S. officials have ruled out putting American boots on the ground, and the U.N. Resolution passed last night specifically says that it does not include an occupation force," said Martin.

"I think the only possible exception to that would be troops going ashore to set up relief stations in the rebel-held areas."

[Sky017]

It's not just Qaddafi anymore. It's his son who has been doing all the commanding and sending out troops recently. So, it seems the son is sane but is looking to impose the status quo.

The people that were protesting... he called them a band of terrorists.

Seems to me that old man Qaddafi is not the only problem across there.

[Nikos_Retsos]

Let us pray that Gadhafi's tenure as Libya's psychopath leaders will be obver "in a matter of hours!"

Gadhafi has declared a "cease fire" after the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) approved a resolution to cut him down to size. He surely feels that his "pants are on fire" now. Suddenly, his bravado has evaporated, and he has switched on the "survival mode!" That's a 180 degree turn from his boasting message to the rebels in Benghazi on Thursday morning: "We are coming in tomorrow [Friday-today], and if you don't surrender, and hide in the closet, we are going to find you, and show no mercy," on quote! Well, it is Friday today, and Gadhafi ordered his foreign minister to declare a cease fire, and he went into hiding! He knows very well now that the Western powers are nor in a mood to show any mercy for him. He expects to hear the explosions from bombers destroying his anti-aircraft defenses, and the thuds from the cruise missiles demolishing his possible hideouts! In short, Gadhafi suddenly found himself transformed from a boasting hunter on Thursday, to a dispirited and hunted coward on Friday waving an olive branch! I am sure there won't be any takers for his olive branch! His regime is slated for demolition!

Well, it is time for that murderous crook to meet his fate. He plundered the oil riches of Libya, stashed more than $ 100 billions abroad for himself and his family, his sons bought $ 15 million homes abroad, and one son, Saif , donated $ 2 million to the London School of Economics to pocket an easy Ph.D degree - while his TV interviews during this crisis revealed that his English grammar is just elementary.

Gadhafi took over in a military coup in 1969 with his buddy Ahmad Jaloud, and he behaved for 42 years like an emperor that owned Libya as his personal property. He saw all other Libyan as serfs - not as citizens that deserved a share for their country's oil wealth. And, to add insult-to-injury, he called all those Libyans who revolted against his brutish and rapacious rule "traitors" that deserve no mercy! Gadhafi want to keep Libyan control for his sons Saif and Saadi, and he has made sure over the years that no one else has risen to prominence during his rule. Even his co-coup conspirator Ahmad Jaloud and second in command for years has vanished, and it is believed that he is either in prison, or in detention to prevent him from overthrowing or succeeding Gadhafi. His whereabouts are unknow - if he is alive. But the vote at the UNSC means that the world sees Gadhafi himself as a thief of Libya's wealth that has kept Libyans impoverished for 42 years, as a cold blooded murderer to save his rule, and as a pariah dictator determined to hold-on and pass control of Libya's governing authority to his children.

But with the UNSC Resolution to dismantle Gadhafi's regime approved, and with superior Western forces amassing on Libyan coast to implement it, Gadhafi and his mischievous children are now looking at the writing in the wall. And I don't have any doubt that what they see is the end of the Gadhafi family psychopathic grandeur as eternal rulers of Libya. I am sure they see their demise in the armada of warships massing off the Libyan coast. And I expect their rule to collapse like a castle in the coastal sand. Amen! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

[jjoe57]

As the U.N. resolution limits military force to protecting civilians, any offensive operations by us would be problematic under a cease-fire (if Libya does call a cease-fire). Then, again, a cease-fire would give the opposition forces in Libya time to regroup.

[Sky017]

Qaddafi and they are just playing games. Why didn't they call the cease-fire before? If they are so justified in defeating the 'terrorists' why don't they say that it is their right to defend their country and protect it from dissidents?

Deep down they know what they are doing is wrong, but they don't want to relinquish government immediately and completely.